The Man Who Wouldn't Die: A Suicide Attempt in Olympia
In a grim display of resilience, a man named June Hickey survived a lethal dose of antimony in an Olympia hotel last week, defying the finality of his own design.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A man named June Hickey attempted to 'shuffle off this mortal coil' by taking sulphate of antimony last week at an Olympia hotel. He was pumped out and may recover.
[From the column 'ABOUT THE SCHOOLS'] A man named Frost, hailing from Whatcom county, came to look for work on the Puyallup valley road, and is missing. Fears of suicide are entertained.
This brief notice captures the precariousness of life in the 1870s Pacific Northwest, where medical intervention for overdose was rudimentary at best. The phrase 'pumped out' refers to gastric lavage or emetics used to clear toxins before modern antidotes existed; survival was never guaranteed. It mirrors today's ongoing public health crisis around substance use and the critical importance of accessible emergency medical care in rural areas like Olympia.
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